One year, after discussing “The Big Bang Theory” in the Biodesign Class, unbeknown to me, a quiet, thoughtful Latina girl went to church the following Sunday. After the service, she approached her priest and asked, “Father, if God made the universe, who made God?” The priest’s face turned red, he stooped down and whispered sharply … [Read more…]
“It’s déjà vu all over again.” Yogi Berra In 1946, anthropologist Loren Eiseley exposed the hypocrisy of scientists who dismissed the Biblical story of creation as mythical and unprovable and then proceeded to replace the poetic metaphor with The Big Bang Theory, which is equally mythical and unprovable. Eiseley, who has been described as one … [Read more…]
Whether Rodin’s sculpture of “The Thinker” was generic or not, it was a perfect complement to Rene Descartes’ life, legacy and accomplishments. There is an old joke that pokes fun at Paris’ “Left-Bank” existentialists like Jean Paul Sartre. Sartre was enjoying a cup of espresso at a sidewalk café when the waiter asked him if … [Read more…]
The two quintessential decisions that led to the birth of the Biodesign Class at St. Helena High School were adopting John Muir as our primary mentor and planning a six-day trip to Yosemite N.P. to explore what he was writing about. In preparation for each trip we pondered The Wilderness World Of John Muir (edited … [Read more…]
An old English proverb suggests: “It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good” The recent fires throughout Napa and Sonoma Counties qualify as Ill Winds. It is common practice for California Dept. of Forestry officials to name fires by their place of origin. Ergo, the fire that destroyed over 3,500 Santa Rosa homes and businesses … [Read more…]
“This follows from the extreme difficulty or rather impossibility of conceiving this wonderful universe, including man with his capacity of looking far backwards and far into futurity, as the result of blind chance or necessity. When thus reflecting I feel compelled to look to a First Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous … [Read more…]
Watching the increasingly commercial emphasis during the Christmas Season, it is little wonder Albert Schweitzer described a kind of naïveté where people are unaware of the silent, spiritual battles within. Although blatant commercialism was far less intense during the time Henry Thoreau wrote “Walden,” (1850) it probably contributed to his efforts to strive to avoid … [Read more…]
“I used to envy the father of our race, dwelling as he did in contact with the new-made fields and plants of Eden; but I so no more, because I have discovered that I also live in ‘creation’s dawn.’ The morning stars still sing together, and the world, not yet half made, becomes more beautiful … [Read more…]
INTELLIGENT MEN DECIPHERING “INTELLIGENT DESIGNS”: “For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.” Hebrews,” 3. “All of Nature is but a metaphor of the human mind.” Emerson It is illogical to assume that physical, mental and spiritual designs can be more complex than the artist/creator of the designs. … [Read more…]
https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/07/12/buckminster-fuller-ever-rethinking-the-lords-prayer/ Buckminster Fuller is described in Wikipedia as a: “designer, inventor, engineer, mathematician, architect, cartographer, philosopher, poet, cosmogonist and visionary.” He wrote over 30 books and qualifies as a true renaissance thinker. Among his many inventions is the “geodesic dome,” which inspired scientists who discovered “Carbon 60” (hollow carbon molecules) to name them “Buckminsterfullerenes,” or … [Read more…]